Brookings Institution

History

The Brookings Institution was formed in 1927 by the merger of the Institute for Governmental Research and the Carnegie Corporation's Institute of Economics, two small research and policy organizations. These two predecessor organizations were formed to provide the federal government with statistics and research aimed at meeting administrative and budget policy needs arising from the growth of government in the early 20th century and U.S. involvement in World War I.

A third institution, the Brookings Graduate School, was also involved in the merger. The school was founded in 1922 as an independent institution by Robert S. Brookings (1850–1932), a [Page 109]businessman, philanthropist, and governmental reformer. Brookings was a friend of the American industrialist Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) and played a leading role in improving Washington University's School of Medicine, which, as a result, was described in positive terms in Abraham Flexner's 1910 report on the state of medical education in the United States. Brookings shared Carnegie's interest in questions of public policy and governance and had founded his school to contribute to the education of students interested in serving in the government.

The new institute, headquartered in Washington, D.C., and, in its original location, close to the White House, was to serve as a source of professional and nonpartisan research and advice to the federal government. The Institution's first president was the economist Harold G. Moulton.

The Great Depression and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's attempts to deal with it provided the Brookings Institution with an enormous challenge. Despite the institute's later reputation as an advocate of liberal policies, Brookings researchers were critical of Roosevelt's New Deal policies and their curbs on what they considered to be the prerogative of the free market. The institute was similarly critical of aspects of the policies of the Truman administration.

Despite its criticisms, however, the Brookings Institution grew in prominence, becoming especially influential during the period of its second president, Robert Calkins (1952–1967). During this time, the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations frequently consulted the Institution. In addition, the Institution added foreign policy research to its traditional focus on domestic policy issues.

Over the years, the Institution evolved into the archetype of the powerful Washington think tank. During the tenure of its third president, Kermit Gordon (1967–1977), Brookings also became the target of rhetorical hostility from the executive branch. Members of the Nixon administration openly criticized the institute because of its influence and the perceived opposition of its staff to the President's policies.

Bruce MacLaury became Brookings's fourth president in 1977, followed by Michael Armacost, a former staffer for President Ronald Reagan, in 1995. Some commentators remarked at the time that Armacost's appointment represented an official recognition by the institute of the new prevalence of conservative ideas in Washington.

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